lollipop lollipop oh lolli lolli lolli lollipop

03/05/2020

The podcast assignment of the Contemporary Design Culture Module was unique to say the least. When coming into this semester, this year or this course even, the last thing I imagined was recording a podcast using my very own voice and acquired knowledge. But it was great. Feeling like Roman Mars on the likes of 99% Invisible was weird but also a very important lifelong experience that I feel will only help me in the long run of my career.

Writing a podcast is hard. Coming up with a script that’ll satisfy the audience every week I can only imagine. Challenging. Being given the 1950s as a time slot, it was clear we knew nothing of it. When it comes to the 20th Century, certain decades stand out. 1940s – WWII, 1970s – beautiful tunes (Pink Floyd), 1980s questionable attire. The 50s never really has been talked out in the day to day 21st Century lifestyle. It was a foundation as we found out. A tester decade for technologies, a restart after the war and certainly a time for crazy design. I think it was only fitting that we had named our podcast “A Million Ways to Die in the 50s” where we basically talked about the questionable world of design to say the very least (radioactive toys). Meshing each of our four scripts together was another challenge. It was clear we all had roughly the same idea of making it into a somewhat satirical recording. That being said had it been an individual podcast assignment I could’ve easily seen myself talking about cars well past the 10 minute mark. To say I was unhappy with the final piece would be more than wrong.

The course often doesn’t take full advantage of teamwork or collaboration I’ve always found. Some semesters are better than others granted (Chain Reaction Project). And where teamwork was present as of recently it has been very minimal. This assignment provided that contrast. From start to finish good teamwork was not only a requirement but a necessity. Discussing ideas, exploring ideas, writing a script and working together to record a coherent fact based but also entertaining podcast required good communication and most definitely; Teamwork.

I enjoyed recording the podcast. I can imagine if it wasn’t for the virus out and about as I type I’m certain that experience would’ve been even better again with the recording studio time provided. Doing it over Facebook Messenger though mildly anticlimactic also made the whole thing relaxing and of course enjoyable. The fact that if we felt repetitive in our conversation satirical based podcast then we could return a few hours later. Because the fact is it didn’t take us one try but close to 10, including trial runs etc. Having the freedom to say stop the recording if something was wrong (only benefited by the great team I had) was relieving and something I am only grateful for. Also choosing music and sound effects was a great part of the process (Chordettes – Lollipop and a hypersonic sled that travels 6,599 mph for example). Adding more personality into the podcast was a necessity and I truly believe that is what we achieved.

With all that being said I think what I gained from this assignment was an extended voice and an understanding of the world before us, the perseverance of a podcaster and a greater understanding of the words written from text to speech. The 50s was a strange time… recording a podcast as little as 10 minutes long takes planning and mastering of many skills (recording, communication, general knowledge etc) and last but not least communicating your knowledge and experience through nothing more than a microphone.